PAUL SANNER
Dear God, thank you for today and every day. 
Please help us to keep our hearts, minds and hands turned to your presence,
listening to your call and working for your Kingdom.     
Scripture
John 15:9-17

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
Reflection
I’ve been involved in helping my mother with a good but major life-transition -- downsizing from her home of 45 years and soon, moving. I suppose the label “sandwich generation” applies to me at the moment -- two children in the pre-teen / teen range; two parents age 80-plus. It could be my imagination, but I feel a heightened awareness of how much transition and change are in life at all times and stages of life. While they don’t seem so at the time, new jobs, schools, home -- those are the easy ones. At the other end of the “easy or not easy” scale -- experiencing for one’s self or walking loved ones through times of serious illness and mourning.    

The song accompanying today’s devotion is “God of Our Life” and speaks of God’s loving and guiding presence in our whole life. 
Audio Recording -
For the Beauty of the Earth
Words:
God of our life, through all the circling years, we trust in thee.
In all the past, through all our hopes and fears, thy hand we see.
With each new day, when morning lifts the veil,
We own thy mercies, Lord, which never fail.

God of the past, our times are in thy hand. With us abide.
Lead us by faith to hope’s true promised land. Be thou our guide.
With thee to bless, the darkness shines as light,
And faith’s fair vision changes into sight.

God of the coming years, through paths unknown we follow thee.
When we are strong, Lord, leave us not alone. Our refuge be.
Be thou for us in life our daily bread,
Our heart’s true home when all our years have sped.
Closing Prayer
Thank you God, for your guidance. Please help us to trust in you in all of our times of change. Our lives are in your hands, thank you for your grace and love. Amen.

Paul Sanner
The Presbyterian Church in Westfield continues to burn as a light in the darkness as our community weathers this fearsome storm of illness. Our reach of care continues to extend far beyond our immediate borders. You can help us make a real impact in the lives of others by joining in our work through your time, your talents, and also in the fruits of your labors.
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